lab techniques

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qwe7791

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How long did it take you guys to perfect lab techniques such as gel electrophoresis, PCR, etc?

Are there any great resources I can utilize to help me get these techniques down in an effective and efficient manner?

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A few weeks? It takes practice for everyone, just like any kind of tool.
 
Took a Loooooooong time. Learning the steps is one thing but actually getting quality results takes lots of practice....
 
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Took a Loooooooong time. Learning the steps is one thing but actually getting quality results takes lots of practice....

+1. Learning how to refine your techniques comes from a lot of practice (aka screwing things up and learning from it).
 
Did you guys watch videos on these procedures to help solidify it better? I've tried looking on youtube, but it doesn't exactly show step by step, and that's something I'm looking for.
 
Did you guys watch videos on these procedures to help solidify it better? I've tried looking on youtube, but it doesn't exactly show step by step, and that's something I'm looking for.
I would say that these techniques are much more "learn by doing." Have someone walk you through it and makes notes of the procedure, that way you can refer back to your own notes until you've got it down. Once you've done it enough times it will be second nature.
 
Have someone else in your lab walk you through it and video tape it if you think it would help. I used to video tape my lab techniques (research lab, not class lab) when I moved from one project to the next, so that the next person would have a resource to help acclimate themselves.
 
The thing is that I haven't done those experiments yet, but I want to get a sense of what to do and its general steps.
 
Ran my first perfect 96 well qPCR plate the other day... I was so excited :soexcited:

Before this I had run just a few ~1/2 full plates and always had 1 or 2 outlier wells (we run technical triplicates)

So it really didn't take all that long, but I have a feeling it was just luck :oops:


For me, the longest thing to perfect is the stupid BCA assay for protein concentrations. I don't know why, but I always have a few with just astronomical standard deviations (again, technical triplicates)
 
How long did it take you guys to perfect lab techniques such as gel electrophoresis, PCR, etc?

Are there any great resources I can utilize to help me get these techniques down in an effective and efficient manner?

Took a lot of practice, practice, practice
 
The thing is that I haven't done those experiments yet, but I want to get a sense of what to do and its general steps.

Lab techniques are not like school subjects where you learn the review sheet and memorize the steps. You really wont know what to expect until you have someone show it to you first. Each lab also does things a little differently. Youtube? LOL.

Westerns are the worst omg
OMG YES. The grad students at the lab were ripping their hair out every other day bc of this lol. WESTERNS are the WORST. You complete a hundred steps...for a blank result.
The beauty of science research... haha. but I love it anyway!
 
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